Tennis Roundup : Maleeva Beats Lloyd and Will Take On Graf in Today’s Final

Manuela Maleeva upset eight-time champion Chris Evert Lloyd, 6-1, 2-6, 7-6, Saturday to advance to the final of the $300,000 Family Circle Magazine Cup tennis tournament at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Maleeva, 20, of Bulgaria, who is now 2-12 against Lloyd, will meet top-seeded Steffi Graf in today’s championship match.

Graf, 17, of West Germany, lost a 5-1 lead in the final set against fifth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini but held on to beat the 16-year-old Argentine, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6.

Maleeva, seeded sixth, was down, 4-2, in the third set against the second-seeded Lloyd but battled back to take a 6-5 lead. Lloyd, however, broke Maleeva’s serve, sending the 2-hour 38-minute match into a tiebreaker.

“Manuela played well, especially the first set,” said Lloyd, who has been bothered this week by the flu and an earache. “But I did feel the effects of my not feeling well in the third set. She had more energy than I did.

“I’ve not been 100%. If there was a difference in the match, then I would say 7-6 in the third set probably came down to that.”

John McEnroe will try for his fifth WCT Finals title today when he plays Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia in a morning match at Dallas.